Short answer: Book your newborn session between 28 and 34 weeks of pregnancy, reserving a window around your due date rather than a fixed date. The session itself is best held in the baby’s first five to fourteen days. When the baby arrives, you text the studio and the exact day is set then.
The question parents ask is “when should the photos be taken?” The question that actually decides whether it happens is “when should I ring?” Those have different answers, and mixing them up is why we get calls from people whose baby is already three weeks old and every studio in northern Sydney is full.
Reserve the window while you are still pregnant
Sydney newborn studios take a small number of babies each week. We hold about three, because each one needs three hours and there is no way to compress that. Booked-out six to ten weeks ahead is normal, and December through February is worse because everyone’s due dates cluster and half the city is away.
So the booking is not a date. It is a fortnight held open around your due date, with the real day pinned once the baby is here. A good studio will structure it that way without being asked. If one insists on locking a specific Tuesday in April before your baby has any say in it, they have not done this often.
Thirty weeks is the comfortable time to do it. Twenty-eight if you are due in summer or you are expecting twins, because those windows go first.
The best age for the session itself
| Baby’s age | What the session is like |
|---|---|
| Days 1–4 | Possible, but you have barely got home. Usually too soon for the parents, not the baby. |
| Days 5–10 | The sweet spot. Deeply sleepy, curls easily, poses without much persuading. Milk has usually come in. |
| Days 11–14 | Still very good. A little more awake, which is not a bad thing — open eyes photograph beautifully. |
| Weeks 3–4 | Workable. Curled poses get harder, baby acne often peaks, more wrapped and parent-held images. |
| 5 weeks and beyond | A different session, and still worth doing. More awake, more alert, more about connection than curls. |
Days five to ten is the window everyone chases and it is genuinely better, for a physical reason: a newborn keeps its in-utero flexibility for roughly two weeks and then straightens out. Nothing you do brings that back.
That said, later is not ruined — we have written separately about newborn photos after four weeks, because plenty of families arrive there and the photographs are lovely, just different.
What happens if the baby is late
About one first baby in twenty arrives after 41 weeks, and a great many arrive after their due date. This is the most common worry we hear and the least justified one.
If you have booked a window rather than a day, a late baby costs you nothing. You text us when the baby is born, we look at the week ahead, and we place you. Because we hold the space either side of your due date, there is almost always somewhere to put you.
What you should confirm when booking is the policy in writing: does my booking fee move with the baby? The answer should be yes, unconditionally, for any arrival date. A studio charging a rebooking fee because your baby did not read the calendar is telling you how the rest of the relationship will go.
What happens if the baby is early
Early is the trickier one, and worth a conversation rather than a rule.
A baby born at 37 or 38 weeks is simply a newborn and the session runs normally. A genuinely premature baby is a different situation. Babies who have spent time in special care are often smaller and thinner for a while, they tire faster, and many neonatal teams prefer visitors and outings kept to a minimum in the early weeks.
When that happens we usually wait. Not to the two-week mark from birth, but to a point where you and your paediatrician are comfortable, which is often around the original due date. Premature babies keep their curl longer than term babies do, so the window you were worried about losing is mostly still there.
A caesarean changes your timing, not the baby’s
If you are having a planned caesarean you know the date, which makes booking easy. What people underestimate is the recovery. Day six after abdominal surgery, in a car from the Hills District to Epping, is a real trip.
Two things help. Sit the session slightly later in the window — day ten to twelve rather than day five. And be honest with the studio about what you can do, because a photographer who knows will bring you a chair, plan the poses with you seated, and do the images with you in them first while you have the most in you.
Booking around siblings and family
If older children are in the photographs, morning is better than afternoon, every time. Small children are at their best before eleven, and a three-year-old at four in the afternoon is not a person who is going to co-operate.
Grandparents visiting from overseas are the other scheduling pressure, and one worth planning around. If your parents are flying in from Shanghai for three weeks after the birth, tell the studio at the booking stage. Multi-generation images cannot be added later once the flight home has gone.
What to do the week the baby arrives
- Message the studio with the birth date, ideally within a day or two.
- Agree the session day — usually five to ten days out from birth.
- Ask what time of day is best; most newborn studios shoot mornings.
- Check what to bring, and what is supplied.
- Try to feed the baby just before you leave home, then again at the studio if needed.
That is the entire administrative burden. Everything else is our job.
A booking timeline, from twenty weeks to the first text
Most parents think of booking as a single act. It is closer to four small ones spread over a few months, and only the first needs any thought.
- Around 20 weeks, after the morning scan. Your due date is now reasonably settled, and so is the month. This is when to start looking at studios and reading what they say about timing. Nothing needs paying or deciding yet.
- Between 28 and 34 weeks. Enquire, ask your questions, and reserve the window. Send your due date and tell the studio anything that could move the plan: a planned caesarean, twins, grandparents flying in, a sibling who is unsettled in new places.
- Around 36 weeks. Put the studio’s email address and phone number somewhere your partner can find them without you. If you are sleeping at the hospital, they are the one who will send the message.
- The day after the birth, or the one after that. One short message: the baby’s name if you like, the birth date, and how you are both going. That is the whole job.
The part people skip is step three. A sentence like “text the photographer” sounds trivial until it is 3am on a maternity ward and you cannot remember which studio you chose.
If this is your situation, do this
The general advice is to hold a fortnight around the due date. A few circumstances change the detail, and it is worth knowing which one is yours before you write to a studio.
You are having a second or third baby
Tell us how old the older children are. A two-year-old and a six-year-old need quite different plans, and we would rather think about where the sibling will be at 10am before the day than during it. Also say whether you want the older child in some frames or most of them. A child who is fine for ten minutes is not a child who will be fine for forty.
You are having an induction or a planned caesarean
You have the unusual advantage of a known date. Use it. Book the window early, and then pin the day as soon as the baby is born. Give yourself more recovery time than feels necessary, and be honest with the studio about what you can manage when the day comes.
You think the baby might come early or late
Nobody can tell you, and you do not need to guess. This is exactly why the window is built around the due date instead of a calendar square. If a scan has moved your due date since you booked, tell the studio so they can move the window with it.
You are planning a home birth, or you live a long way out
If you are further out, such as the upper end of the Hills District or the Central Coast side of Hornsby, say so at booking. A half-hour drive with a ten-day-old and a car seat is a different morning from a five-minute one, and it is better planned than discovered. Leave extra time before the start and a clear head for the drive home.
Family is flying in for the birth
Ask relatives for their return flight dates before you speak to the studio. If they leave on day twelve, the session needs to happen before then, and that is a fact worth giving up front rather than mentioning in the room on the day.
What to have ready before you write
A short, specific first email gets you a useful answer in one reply instead of five. Gather these before you enquire.
- Your due date, and whether it came from a dating scan or from the first day of your last period.
- Whether you are expecting one baby or more than one.
- How many children are already in the family, with their ages.
- Any delivery plan that has a fixed date, such as an induction or a planned caesarean.
- Names and travel dates of any grandparents or relatives you want in the pictures.
- Your suburb, so the studio can tell you honestly what the drive will be like.
- One thing you would like the photographs to feel like, in your own words. A plain sentence is enough.
- The name of whoever will send the message once the baby is here, if that is not you.
Two of those are worth underlining. The first is the dating scan. Due dates can shift by a few days after an early ultrasound, and the later date is the one we plan around. The second is the final line. When you are two nights into having a baby, you will not remember that you were the person meant to write. If your partner knows it is their job, the photographs happen.
Common questions
Is 34 weeks too late to book?
Not necessarily, but you will have fewer studios to choose from, and the ones with the shortest lead times are usually the ones with the least demand. If you are at 34 weeks now, enquire today rather than after the shower. Availability around Epping, Ryde and the North Shore moves week to week.
What if I go into labour early and miss my window entirely?
You cannot miss it, because the window is defined by the birth, not by a date on a calendar. That is the whole reason we book it this way. Tell us the baby is here and we find the day. The only genuinely difficult case is a long special care stay, and we handle that case by case.
Can I book after the baby is born instead?
You can, and some families do, but you are then competing for a slot inside a ten-day window with no notice. Plenty of parents pull it off. Plenty also ring on day eight and find the three studios they liked are full until the following month. Booking ahead costs nothing and removes the gamble.
Do I need to know the baby’s sex before booking?
No. Wraps, blankets and setups are chosen on the day, and we keep the whole wardrobe out anyway. If you have a colour you love or one you cannot stand, tell us at the booking — that is more useful information than the sex.
How far in advance do the popular weeks fill?
Late spring and the period after Christmas book earliest in Sydney, often three months out. If your due date lands in November, December or January, treat 28 weeks as the deadline rather than the suggestion.
Book the due date, not the birth date
The mistake is almost always the same: waiting until the baby exists before organising anything. By then you have ten days, no sleep, and whatever availability is left.
Reserve the fortnight while you are still pregnant. Confirm the booking fee moves with the baby. Then forget about it entirely until you are holding someone, and send one text.
If you have a due date, that is all we need to hold you a window. Email info@tzportraits.com with the month you are due and we will tell you what is still open.
Newborn portraits in our Epping studio
A warm, quiet studio, plenty of time and your baby's pace. Parents and siblings are welcome in the frame.
